There are several cardiac tissue-engineering methods under development as an alternative for heart transplantation. All of these methods involve integration of cardiac myocytes with non-biological / engineered materials. There is no systematic study available concerning the effect of the surface characteristics of engineered materials on the physiology of cardiac muscle cells. With the new surface modification methods the biomaterial / host interface could be determined/or studied/independently from the bulk properties of the material. The full capability of these techniques cannot be exploited without a detailed knowledge of surface -cell interactions. In this study a new, relatively high throughput in vitro method will be developed to test biocompatibility /bioactivity of biomaterials used in cardiac tissue engineering. Self-assembled monolayers will be utilized to )roduce functionalised surfaces. Neonatal rat cardiac myocytes will be cultured on defined surfaces under serum free conditions. Cardiac physiology will be monitored with light microscopy, patch-clamp electrophysiology, calcium imaging and multi-electrode recording methods. Our goals: 1. Development of an in vitro test system for systematic characterization of surface - cardiac myocyte interaction. 2. Perform a systematic analysis on the interaction of cultured cardiac myocytes with functionalised surfaces, which are mimicking the surface characteristics of the degradation products of commonly used PLA and PGA scaffolding materials. This study will be the first attempt for the systematic study of surface - cardiac myocyte interactions. Results obtained in this study would have a high impact on the progress of the emerging new cardiac tissue engineering methods.